Samuel Johnson idézet

oldal 11

„A titok megtartása bölcsesség, de elvárni, hogy mások is megtartsák, ostobaság.”

„Ha az ember nem köt új ismeretségeket az élete során, végül egyedül marad. Az embernek, uram, állandóan karban kell tartania a barátságait.”

„A szerelem a bolond bölcsessége és a bölcs bolondsága.”

„Az emlékezet minden bölcsesség anyja.”

„A barátságot, akárcsak a szerelmet, a hosszú távollét tönkreteszi, bár rövid szünetekkel tovább tarthat.”

„Senki sem mehet vissza és kezdhet újra, de bárki elkezdheti a mai napot és új befejezéssel zárhatja le.”

“His [David Garrick's] death has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.”

“Ah! let not Censure term our fate our choice,
The stage but echoes back the public's voice;
The drama's laws the drama's patrons give,
For we that live to please must please to live.”

“I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong; and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labour appear to be right.”

“PATRON, n. One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery.”

“"Some," answered Imlac, "have indeed said that the soul is material, but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it, who knew how to think; for all the conclusions of reason enforce the immateriality of mind, and all the notices of sense and investigations of science, concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.”

“Declamation roared, while Passion slept.”

“The potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”

“I'll come no more behind your scenes, David [Garrick]; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities.”

“"Enlarge my life with multitude of days!"
In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays:
Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know
That life protracted is protracted woe.”

“Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.”

“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.”

“You see they'd have fitted him to a T.”

“All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to shew how much he can spare.”

“But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in few words.”

“Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.”

“I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.”

“No man is much pleased with a companion, who does not increase, in some respect, his fondness for himself.”

“The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things — the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.”

“The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.”

“It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.”

“His conversation does not show the minute-hand, but he strikes the hour very correctly.”

“I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, "Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task."”

“To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.”

“Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young.”

“Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.”

“Pleasure of itself is not a vice.”

“I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.”

“A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.”

“Slavery is now no where more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.”